Steven Spurrier: A Life in Wine Académie du Vin Library, Ascot, Berkshire, United Kingdom, 2020, 288 pp., ISBN 978-1913141073, $45.00.

have made an admirable effort to keep track of what is happening nearly everywhere fine wine is grown. If you are ever dining in Malta and find yourself confronted by a cellar list of local producers, the Pocket Wine Book would be your friend. Rand ends the volume with a bracing essay on “the ten best things about wine right now,” and her upbeat assessment may encourage you to reach for your corkscrew and pour a glass in celebration. For some readers, the most useful section of the book will be its recommendations for matching wine with a wide range of foods. Based on a lifetime of sipping and tasting, Johnson’s opinions are firm but not dogmatic (apart from a stern warning that “watercress makes every wine on earth taste revolting” (p. 34). Even if my own tastes occasionally diverge from his, I have found his advice to be sound across a wide range of main ingredients, cuisines, herbs, spices, and cheeses. Above all, Johnson wants the marriage of food and wine to be free from anxiety. As Johnson wrote in the 2021 edition:“Matching wine and food matters, but don’t get hung up on it.” That pragmatic, hedonic philosophy neatly captures the book’s enduring appeal. Some writers make appreciating wine seem like hard work; Johnson and now Rand remind us that it is fundamentally about pleasure. Knowing more about the wines we drink, when to pull the cork, and how to pair them with food enhances our enjoyment, and being able to allocate one’s wine budget intelligently is a useful skill. The Pocket Wine Guide can help you do all of these things, which is why I have ordered a copy for my two millennial children. I cannot think of a better endorsement than that.